Izis : The Paris of Dreams

Exhibition “Izis, Paris des Rêves”, until May 29th, 2010.

In 1951, the MoMA of New York organized an exhibition reuniting five great French photographers (Brassaï, Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis, Cartier-Bresson and Izis). In 2010, The Mairie de Paris, presents Izis in the strictest privacy. Humanist, poet, this “picture hawker” as his friend Jacques Prévert called him, revealedthe street roughness and the daily life of many Parisians in his photos. Came from Lithuania when he was 19, to escape the misery and live the “Paris of Dreams”. He was tortured by Nazis, before he became an underground fighter. From this period, several realistic portraits remain, French Resistance fighters, rough and not-shaven, striking of modernity. After lean years, he became the witness of romantic and humanist Paris, where problems related to the reconstruction seem forgotten, but we can feel a latent anxiety, unknown by the other photographers. Was he too popular? Although he has been qualified as social, he showed the Paris of artists and writers, notably with his friends Colette and Chagall. Thanks to the exhibition at the Mairie de Paris, “Izis, Paris des Rêves”, we discover someone who seems having lived several lives, and to whom Paris meant life and dreams. An exhibition that highlights his intentions: “Why Paris? Because Paris excited my imagination. It was the City of Light. In my mind, everything happened in Paris. In 1930, London, New York or Berlin didn’t interest me. We were attracted by France as the country of Spirit. Freedom, Equality of Man and Culture, that made us dreaming.”

exposition-izis
On the Banks of Seine,
Little Bridge.
© Izis Bidermanas

Opened everyday, except on Sundays and public holidays, from 10 am to 7pm.
On March 2nd and 30th the exhibition will open at 1.30pm. Free entrance.
Did you know ? His real name is Izraëlis Bidermanas.